The Minister (s) of Foreign Affairs, Edgardo Riveros, together with the Executive Director for the Americas of the European External Action Service, Edita Hrdá, led today the II Round of Negotiation of the Chile-European Union Association Agreement, which seeks to modernize the instrument signed in November 2002 in Belgium.

At the end of the meeting, the authorities signed a joint declaration.

Second round of negotiations for the Modernisation of the Association Agreement between Chile and the European Union, chapter on Political Dialogue and Cooperation

Santiago de Chile, February the 1st of 2018

The chief negotiators of Chile, Mr. Edgardo Riveros, Minister (s) of Foreign Affairs, and of the European Union, Mrs. Edita Hrdá, Executive Director for the Americas of the European External Action Service, met today to hold the second round of negotiations on the political and cooperation chapter for the modernisation of the Association Agreement, which, until today, has been an effective and dynamic instrument for strengthening bilateral ties.

The new Association Agreement will replace the one signed in 2002, reinforce the commitments already adopted and extend the political and cooperation dialogue to new areas in order to respond to the challenges and opportunities of the current international context. It is thus intended to be the most advanced agreement that the European Union has set out to sign, covering a wide range of issues, in order to achieve a last-generation partnership, while containing an important trade chapter.

This second round, for the political and cooperation side, follows on from a first round and the launch of negotiations which took place in Brussels on November 16th. Both sides have already compared the text proposals, thus revealing a large number of convergent areas and promising prospects for the signing of a comprehensive agreement later this year.

Progress has been made on a number of issues, including political dialogue and cooperation on human rights and democracy, coordination and cooperation in the areas of international peace and conflict prevention, disaster management, triangular international cooperation and the fight against organized crime and cybercrime. In the same terms, the chapter on sustainable development in its three dimensions, social, economic and environmental, should be considered, which will facilitate coordination on issues of the 2030 sustainable development agenda, the fight against climate change, environmental protection, ocean governance and energy-related issues. Also worthy of note is the gender perspective, which will be addressed across all areas of the agreement.

At the end of the meeting, Ms. Hrdá and Mr. Riveros welcomed the progress made in this round and expressed their full confidence that the negotiations would continue in good terms with the aim of reaching an agreement in the near future.